Rep. Smith seems to soften stance on DREAMers

At a meeting at his district office last week, Rep. Lamar Smith said something that surprised members of Communities Organized for Public Service/Metro Alliance, a church-based advocacy group that supports comprehensive immigration reform.

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According to a COPS/Metro member present at the June 24 meeting, the Republican congressman listed reform measures that he could support, including tightened border security, a guest worker program and the DREAM Act.

It was that last bit — support for the Development, Relief and Education of Alien Minors Act, a proposed path to citizenship for immigrants who were brought to the United States illegally as children — that came as a shock. And for good reason: As recently as 2011, Smith was calling the DREAM Act an “American nightmare.”

A request to interview the San Antonio congressman went unanswered Wednesday. But an aide to Smith told me “he does not agree with (the member's) characterization from the meeting.”

Here's a blow-dried statement from Smith: “We need to address the status of children who were brought to the U.S. illegally at a young age through no fault of their own. They should not be blamed for their parents' actions. A new visa, not conducive to fraud or chain migration, should be created for them.”

Smith's aide added it's “premature to say what the special visa might lead to.”

On Wednesday, this response flummoxed the member of COPS/Metro, who requested anonymity because the group remains in encouraging talks with the congressman. The member stressed that Smith mentioned no caveats or reservations last week in professing support for the DREAM Act.

So what gives?

As former chair of the powerful Judiciary Committee, Smith proved uncompromising against the millions of people who have entered the country illegally.

After the White House announced it would prioritize deportations to remove violent criminals and terrorists, Smith called it “backdoor amnesty” and introduced a measure to stop it: the “Hinder the Administration's Legalization Temptation” Act, or HALT.

And when President Barack Obama announced last year that he would use executive authority to stop the deportation of some immigrants who came to the United States as children — the so-called “administrative DREAM Act” — Smith decried it as having “horrible consequences for unemployed Americans looking for jobs.”

But something strange has started happening since last week, when the Senate approved legislation that would allow millions of undocumented immigrants the opportunity to become U.S. citizens: some House Republicans have softened their stances against the slice of immigrants who qualify as DREAMers.

At a town hall meeting Monday in Lynchburg, Va., the new chair of the Judiciary Committee, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, said “maybe” legislation “could include a path to citizenship” for people who came to the country illegally as children, according to Bloomberg.

And on Tuesday, Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Corpus Christi, referred to “people facing deportation that were brought here as very young children” as “the victims,” according to the Gonzales Cannon.

“We've spent all this money educating them; we need their productivity,” he said.

All this sudden compassion sounds like coordinated messaging. And it could conceal some cunning.

If House Republicans, who have adopted a piecemeal approach to debating immigration bills, offer support for the DREAM Act in lieu of comprehensive reform, any wavering by Democrats could prove politically damaging.

I asked Rep. Joaquín Castro, D-San Antonio, if he feared such maneuvering.

“I can't speak to their strategy directly,” Castro said, “but there's no question there are a lot of political games that get played in Washington.”

Nonetheless, any softening on immigration from hard-liners such as Smith show the debate “has evolved a long way,” Castro said. “It's a testament to how far we've come, understanding as a Congress where we should go on this issue.”